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Customer

Lauren Bright is a leading wholesale and retail enterprise that specializes in importing European apparel and operates more than 40 outlets in major Chinese cities. Lauren Bright's Pinko store in Harbour City, Hong Kong features the Pinko clothing line, an Italian fashion brand designed specifically for young women.

Challenge

When opening a new shop for the Pinko brand, Lauren Bright was looking for a video surveillance system to monitor internal staff and to provide anti-theft protection. They were looking for high-resolution imaging to do the job more effectively. As always in the retail environment, overall system cost was a consideration.

Megapixel solution

Arecont Vision megapixel cameras were chosen for an installation in the store based on their clearer, high-quality images and the ability to increase operating efficiency, according to Jerry So, sales manager, ADT Hong Kong Ltd.

ADT Hong Kong designed the video surveillance system and performed the installation. The integrator is the Hong Kong branch of ADT, the leader in electronic security solutions, specializing in design, sales, installation and monitoring services for more than 7.2 million residential, commercial and industrial customers worldwide. With $7 billion in annual sales, 60,000 employees globally and operations in more than 40 countries, ADT protects 90 percent of the world's Fortune 500 companies and more than 80 percent of the world's top retailers.

The integrator and end-user evaluated analog cameras for the installation but decided instead to go for the superior image quality and expanded functionality of a system based on the megapixel video. Cameras installed at Lauren Bright's Pinko store were four Arecont Vision 1.3-megapixel cameras and Arecont Vision's AV2155DN, a 2-megapixel day/night camera.

Arecont Vision's 1.3-megapixel camera provides 1,280 x 1,024-pixel images at 32 frames per second using a ½ inch CMOS sensor. Capabilities of Arecont Vision megapixel cameras include motion detection, image cropping, region-of-interest viewing and the ability to zoom into an image after it is archived (forensic zooming).

Arecont Vision AV2155DN is a 2-megapixel MegaDome® camera that provides 1600 x 1200-pixel images at 24 fps, with a low-light sensitivity of 0.1 lux at F1.4. The MegaDome® all-in-one integrated camera, lens and IP66-rated environmental dome housing use a 1/2-inch CMOS sensor and Arecont Vision's MegaVideo® image processing at 80 billion operations per second. The camera employs H.264 (MPEG 4, Part 10) compression to minimize bandwidth and storage requirements while maintaining real-time image resolution. The day/night model used at the Pinko store features a motorized IR cut filter. The dome features a camera gimbal with 360-degree pan and 90-degree tilt adjustments.

Capabilities of Arecont Vision megapixel cameras include motion detection, image cropping, region-of-interest viewing and the ability to zoom into an image after it is archived (forensic zooming)

The network video recorder is supplied by Genius Vision Digital, Inc. (GVD) and is fully interoperable with Arecont Vision megapixel cameras. The Pinko system is monitored centrally from the main control room. A hard disk drive (HDD) provides 1 terabyte of storage.

Arecont Vision works closely with industry leaders such as GVD to ensure integration of Arecont Vision's megapixel cameras with their NVR platforms.

Megapixel benefits

The system has performed well to date, and Arecont Vision has been responsive to the needs of the user and integrator. The improved video quality of megapixel imaging is especially important in retail applications. For example, better video quality makes it more likely an operator could clearly see the denominations of paper bills changing hands in a questionable point-of-sale transaction.

The picture quality and digital zoom capabilities of Arecont Vision cameras far exceed analog technology and allow retailers to retrieve usable video that can be used as prosecutable evidence. Megapixel imaging represents a significant upgrade in system functionality compared to standard-resolution cameras. In addition to lower bandwidth and storage requirements, megapixel cameras can dramatically decrease costs related to other elements of a system, such as fewer software licenses, fewer lenses and a decrease in man-hours needed to bring it all together. These advantages play especially well in the retail environment, where costs are always a consideration.

This application of megapixel cameras to provide unparalleled image quality and resolution in a small retail environment illustrates the flexibility of megapixel solutions and their cost-effectiveness for a wide range of uses.